Bärenreiter Praha

The Czech publisher Bärenreiter Praha is part of the Bärenreiter publishing group.

The music publishing company began in the 1940s, when the state-owned company Orbis was created as a result of the nationalisation of several private publishing houses. From 1967 onwards the company existed under the name Supraphon.

In 1991, after the end of communism, it was privatised, resulting in the creation of two independent companies: Supraphon as a recording company and Editio Supraphon. The latter traditionally specialised in sheet music and books on music and acquired the extensive music and book archive of the former state-owned company Supraphon, which later transferred into the ownership of the present company Bärenreiter Praha.

After the completion of the protracted privatisation process, Editio Supraphon was acquired by Bärenreiter, Kassel. Links between these two publishing houses were already well-established: the jointly-published Complete Critical Edition of the Works of Leoš Janáček began to appear in 1978. In 1999 the Czech publisher became part of the Bärenreiter group. Its objective is primarily to publish works by Czech composers.

Bärenreiter Praha’s publishing programme encompasses the development of music from the medieval period to the present day. Classical works from the concert repertoire take their place alongside music education works, editions of contemporary music and books on music. Consistent with the publishing programme of the parent company, Bärenreiter Praha specialises in publishing Urtext editions for practical performance use. A major part of works published for the Czech market consists of music education titles. With a staff of twenty-five, Bärenreiter Praha markets and distributes its own titles and is also the exclusive distributor for Bärenreiter group publications throughout Eastern Europe.

The hire department supplies performance material on hire for concert and stage performances. These works include both the company’s own publications as well as works from other publishers (Alkor-Edition Kassel, Boosey & Hawkes, Bote & Bock, DSCH Publishers etc.).

Bärenreiter Praha strives to fulfil the high standards of editorial preparation, excellent design and quality of the printed presentation of titles as exemplified by the Bärenreiter brand.